Friendly fire incident at Skukuza
There has apparently been a friendly fire incident in KNP near Skukuza - no full details yet as next of kin still to be informed (two deaths) but from what I can gather it involved possibly a field guide, a policeman, possibly SANDF and at the same time there is also mention of another rhino poached near Skukuza - whether the poaching is related to this incident is not known at this point but it does take the rhino poaching stats to 188! Condolences to the families of those involved.

A policeman and a game ranger have been shot and killed in the Kruger National Park, police said on Sunday.

The policeman, accompanied by a soldier, was searching for rhino poachers in the park's southern Tshokwane section park at 9am on Saturday morning when they came under fire, police spokesman Colonel Vishnu Naidoo said.

"The shooting resulted in the SAPS member being shot and killed. In return, the defence force member fatally wounded the shooter," said Naidoo.

"It emerged later that the shooter was in fact an on-duty SANParks game ranger."

An inquest docket was opened to determine the circumstances and cause of the incident.

"The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western cruelty and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.”

April 30 2012 at 12:00pm
By Kamcilla Pillay and Sapa
Copy of law enforcement

.

A broken radio might have led to the deaths of a policeman and a game ranger in the Kruger National Park, police and park authorities said on Sunday.

The policeman, accompanied by a soldier, was searching for rhino poachers in the park’s southern Tshokwane section park at 9am on Saturday when they came under fire, police spokesman, Colonel Vishnu Naidoo, said.

“The shooting resulted in the SAPS member being shot and killed. In return, the defence force member fatally wounded the shooter,” Naidoo said.

“It emerged later that the shooter was an on-duty SANParks game ranger,” Naidoo said.

SANparks spokesman, William Mabasa, said that they still did not have all the details of the incident.

He said that the Sandf member’s telephone communicator was not working (they do not use cellphones because of poor reception), so he and the police officer had not been able to make contact with the ranger.

“They were on official duty – we do not have any reason to believe that anyone was doing anything wrong,” he said. “It happened in a thickly bushed area, so it is difficult to say exactly what happened – police have been there since yesterday, so hopefully they will get to the bottom of this,” he said.

He expected a full report by Wednesday.

Naidoo said that the pair had received information that there might have been rhino poaching activity in the area, and so proceeded to investigate.

He echoed Mabasa’s sentiments, saying that it was hard to say at this stage if it was a case of mistaken identity or wrongdoing, as the investigation was still going on. Naidoo also said that it was the first time a police officer had been killed while trying to stave off the wave of illegal rhino poachings.

"The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western cruelty and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.”